Health Access California emailed the following action-alert regarding the current effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a bill sponsored by GOP Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy. The following message summarizes the bill perfectly and includes steps you can take today to fight the Graham-Cassidy bill and protect Medicaid.

The legislation would repeal funding for the ACA and cut and cap Medicaid. This would disproportionately cut California’s health care by a massive $28 billion a year by 2026, and a staggering $58 billion in 2027 and beyond, according to an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

An author of Graham-Cassidy, former Senator Rick Santorum, said it plainly to Breitbart News on August 22nd: “What you can do is redistribute this money that has been heaped upon…ultra-blue, very wealthy states.” He continues, “If California simply wants to expand Medicaid with this money, good luck. They’re going to have to cut their program dramatically because they don’t have the money with what they’re funding now.”

Congressional leaders are looking to jam this through to a vote in the Senate and the House, with few committee hearings and little public input, to try and meet a September 30th deadline. Given the detrimental and disproportionate harm this could do to our state, our California congressional delegation, including the 14 members who voted for previous ACA repeal bills, must immediately and vehemently denounce this bill.